Nearly 6,000 Indians in Saudi Arabiahave secured a full-time employment since an amnesty was announced in April for illegal foreign workers to regularise their residency.

Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, Indian consul general in Jeddah, saidthe diplomatic mission dealt with more than 10,000 Indians andhelped them correct their status, either by transferring theirsponsorship, renewing their residence permits or changing their professions.

"When we saw the large number of people who came to theconsulate asking for work, we invited companies to come and hire regular employees who had corrected their status," he said.

"We organised three job fairs and more than 200 Saudi andIndian companies participated in these fairs, and around 6,000Indians got full time jobs as a result," Kidwai was quoted assaying by the Arab News today.

Saudi Arabia announced the amnesty in April this year andextended it by four months in July allowing foreign workers toregularise their documents.

A number of foreign workers who were working without validwork permits and runaways have come under the scanner after Saudi Arabia introduced a new labour law called 'Nitaqat', which makes it mandatory for local companies to hire one Saudi national for every 10 migrant workers.

The consul general said over 95 per cent of the workers were absorbed in contracting and technological sectors, while the remaining 5 per cent were hired by engineering, accounting and hotel sectors.

"Extending the amnesty period has helped in getting themarket organised and we told our nationals to take advantageof the grace period to correct their status because it will not be offered again," he said.

The consul said some of our nationals faced problems regarding issues pending with the Passport Department.

"Some of our nationals have no entry number because they lost their passports and some of them don't have photocopies of their passports. We are working to resolve these issues," he said.